The usual trick, and the impetus for this more elegant solution, is panty hose. If you donít wear booties but do wear wetsuits that are hard to get on of off your feet, PH remain the best solution (for real men who donít give a damn what anybody else thinks.) You put on the PH, slip into that tight-ankled suit, cut off the PH feet at mid-foot, slide the excess up off your foot onto your ankle, and when youíre ready to take the suit off, it slides off your ankle as easily as a pair of oversized shorts. No more cursing, yelling, dislocated thumbs, fingernail-gouged ankles, torn suits, blood pressure spikes, strokes, or exhaustion; you can almost kick the suit off your ankle.

And stand there in your wifeís, girl-friendís, or Momís panty hose.

If you are wearing booties, thereís no reason to cut off the PH feet. Leave Ďem intact, slip on your booties very easily, and slide everything off VERY easily when the time comes.

Then stand there in your panty hose.

Now thereís a more elegant solution for any non-cross-dressers or secure men wearing booties. It was inspired by PH, it works as well as PH, and it doesnít leave you standing there in transparent womenís underwear.

I did just recognize one concern: feet slipping inside booties. I hate wearing booties, but the main issue is their clumsiness in the straps. Yesterday was my first day in booties this fall, and maybe that clumsy feel that made me pack it up and go home was my feet slipping in the booties. I'll have to try the Wetsox with some of my other booties and try these booties without Wetsox, accepting the exhausting 6-8-minute nightmare required to extract my feet from my deliberately oversized dry suit. If it weren't for the weeks of excruciating hives I get from one session in water below about 55 degrees, I'm fine down to 46 degrees barefooted ... pretty much April through November in the Columbia.

Do you ever get done with a session and think, "there's no way I can get my wetsuit off. Too tired. Please just give me a beer and let me sit down and wait for a second wind. Maybe I'll sleep in it tonight and take it off tomorrow."

Old.

Last edited by fxop on Thu Oct 26, 2017 9:06 am; edited 1 time in total

Yep, I've been there, but I have yet to actually drive home in my wetsuit.
(site to site is another thing though).

-Craig

fxop wrote:

Do you ever get done with a session and think, "there's no way I can get my wetsuit off. Too tired. Please just give me a beer and let me sit down and wait for a second wind. Maybe I'll sleep in in tonight and take it off tomorrow."

I bought a new high end Neil Pryde steamer loooong ago. Getting it off wet feet was so infuriating and exhausting that I just cut the ankle cuffs off the suit. Given an option, I don't buy full suits without zipper- or velcro-opening ankles any more. The fight is an awful way to end a great day on the water.

Well spare a thought for those of us who wear double footwear in mid winter. (3mm socks beneath 5mm boots.) But they never seem much problem to get off - they are always full of water, so well lubricated! (SEA WATER Joe -we sometimes need wet suits repaired, and some of us heve not yet lost all self respect )

As for peeling off 7mm winter wet suits, I've always pulled them down and off, inside out. For legs, peel down the main body and and stand on one leg side while pulling same side other leg up to peel it down to ankle level. (Ditto other side.) As for ankle clearance, well yes, 7mm neoprene does require a bit of finger leverage to clear the heel, but balancing there in the snow does kind of speed things up a little!

But windsurfing was never meant to be free of a little hardship, was it! (And the warp 10 afterglow, while sitting in car with flask of tea, and heater full on - well, we EARN that pleasure don't we!!)

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